"Community economic development is a term used quite often in Washington, but it is a term understood best by the dedicated community partners like Accion who commit to more opportunity for small business development," Doggett said in a prepared statement.

The text seen by the Guardian talked of a "legal instrument applicable to all parties", a phrase understood to be acceptable to the US and the EU, though it is weaker than a "legally binding" commitment.

French politicians have defended their health system as an ideal synthesis of solidarity and liberalism (a term understood in much of Europe to mean market-based economic systems), lying between Britain's "nationalized" health service, where there is too much rationing, and the United States '"competitive" system, where too many people have no health insurance.